Despite an unprecedented effort, Democrats failed to make any inroads in the Onondaga County Legislature after Election Day votes were counted.
Unofficial results show Republicans holding all of their seats to maintain an 11-6 majority in the legislature. One race, in the 10th District between Democrat Heather Waters and Republican Mark Olsen, is too close to call and will be decided by absentee ballots. Olsen leads Waters by 359 votes with more than 500 absentee ballots to count.
Syracuse Common Councilor Joe Driscoll led the effort to get Democratic candidates on the ballot in all 17 legislative districts, with a goal of flipping three seats from Republican to Democrat. While that didn’t happen, Driscoll said Tuesday night there’s always the next election in two years.
“I hope we can build name recognition and keep building and keep trying to strive for it,” Driscoll said. “I do think the county legislature right now is basically a rubber stamp for the county executive, and I do think some accountability would do the county a bunch of good.”
Democrats have not held a majority on the Onondaga County legislature since 1980.
